FEDERAL DILEMMA
U.S. government struggles over when, how to bring employees back to the office
Two months after the Biden administration’s deadline for federal workers to be vaccinated against coronavirus so they could begin returning to the office, the government’s plan to resume normal operations remains muddled.
Even before a federal judge in Texas issued a preliminary injunction Friday blocking President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for the workforce of 2.1 million, many agencies had not mapped out when to bring employees back and how to keep them safe.
About half the workforce is still working from home nearly two years into the public health crisis, after soaring omicron cases prompted agencies to scrap return-to-office plans intended to kick in after the new year. Most employees have no idea when they’ll be back.
And while the vast majority of the civilian workforce is vaccinated — a victory for the administration — tens of thousands of employees are not. They are still inspecting meat, working airport security X-ray machines, guarding federal prisoners, tending to sick veterans and serving the public directly in other ways — some with testing requirements, some not —while decisions about protecting their colleagues and the public drag on in agency-by-agency negotiations.
Officials say they’re still contemplating how they’ll deal with unvaccinated employees while keeping vaccinated colleagues and the public safe — whether by reshuffling jobs, sending unprotected staff home to work or reconfiguring offices to keep them at a distance.
Even a coronavirus testing program for those employees exempted from the president’s vaccine mandate won’t begin for another month, after a similar testing effort last summer failed to get off the ground.
“We’re at a point in the pandemic when all the processes are out the window,” said Chad Hooper, executive director of the nonprofit Professional Managers Association, which represents managers at the Internal Revenue Service, whose leaders recently warned the public to expect subpar service this tax season. “Why is every function of the federal government having to develop a strategy independent of the other?”
Some agencies have announced return-to-office plans that will still allow large swaths of their staffs to continue to telework a few days a week. The plans could change if virus transmission is high in certain areas of the country.
Housing and Urban Development employees are scheduled to return March 14. The Environmental Protection Agency will require political appointees and high-level managers to begin going back Feb. 28, with another wave to phase in March 28, but there’s no word yet on rank-and-file employees.
The Social Security Administration, under intense pressure for months from Congress and advocates for the disabled to reopen its vast network of field offices, is scheduled to begin in-person service there in April. The administrative law judges who hear appeals of denied claims for disability benefits - and are now conducting hearings on the phone or through videoconferencing - will resume in-person work in May and June, the agency said last week.
Other agencies are still negotiating over their returns, with the biggest hurdle finding agreement with unions, which must get 30 days’ notice before employees return and have generally pushed for more time working from home.